1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an axle guide, and more particularly, to an axle guide comprising a fiber-synthetic material composite for guiding an wheelset in the running gear of a rail vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
High-speed rail traffic places particularly stringent demands on the running gears of rail vehicles. The components of wheelset guidance in high-speed trains are subjected to particularly high loads. They have to ensure safe travel of the rail vehicle, day in day out, over several years, experiencing little wear in operation while at the same time requiring little maintenance. The linking of the wheelsets to the running gear chassis is decisive as far as safety and comfort are concerned. The wheelset guides in the running gear of rail vehicles serve the purpose of linking the axles to the running gear chassis, both in the direction of travel and transversely to it. In this context, the dynamics of the train require wheelset guide rigidities within a narrow tolerance band. The vertical rigidity of a wheelset guide should be very slight, so as to have as little influence as possible on primary springing. Thus, vertical rigidity is to be attuned with regard to its spring rate. Precisely and permanently meeting the required specified transverse rigidity is of prime importance for the desired dynamic characteristics of the train to remain within narrow boundaries. For high-speed travel, longitudinal rigidity must be as high as possible. Nevertheless, low-wear operation makes a certain compliance in the longitudinal direction desirable, so that in curved sections of the track the wheelsets can better adapt to the different radii of the two curved rails, thus reducing frictional wear on the wheels. To avoid current-induced damage to the wheelset rolling bearings, it is desirable for the wheelset guides to comprise a material which is not electrically conductive, or for the wheelset guides to be held to the wheelset in a non-conductive manner. For reasons of comfort, they should also have good damping properties so as to largely prevent the transmission of structure-borne noise from the wheelset to the running gear, and thus to the vehicle body.
From EP 0 363 573 A2, a wheelset guide with a fiber composite component for the bogie of a rail vehicle is known, which forte purpose of guiding the wheelset axles is leaf-spring-shaped. In order to transmit transverse moments, the wheelset guide is attached at end sections so as to be form locked and force locked, both to the wheelset bearing housing and to the bogie frame. The central section of the fiber composite component, extending along a horizontal longitudinal axis of the component, is of constant cross section which is flat in the vertical direction, in the manner of a leaf spring. In this way, the fiber composite component of the wheelset guide provides flexural elasticity in the vertical direction, while being highly rigid both transversely and longitudinally. This known wheelset guide has no rotational de-gree of freedom between the wheelset guide and the bearing housing, and, consequently, the wheel bearing housing is subjected to an undesirable flexural stress which in particular in the case of high-speed rail vehicles is very considerable.